A theoretical dream for decades, the railgun is unlike any other weapon used in warfare. And it's quite real too, as the U.S. Navy has proven in a record-setting test today in Dahlgren, VA.

Rather than relying on a explosion to fire a projectile, the technology uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. The conductive projectile zips along a set of electrically charged parallel rails and out of the barrel at speeds up to Mach 7.

The result: a weapon that can hit a target 100 miles or more away within minutes.

For a generation raised on shoot-'em-up video games, the word "railgun" invokes sci-fi images of an impossibly destructive weapon annihilating monsters and aliens. But the railgun is nonetheless very real.

An electromagnetic railgun offers a velocity previously unattainable in a conventional weapon, speeds that are incredibly powerful on their own. In fact, since the projectile doesn't have any explosives itself, it relies upon that kinetic energy to do damage. And at 11 a.m. today, the Navy produced a 33-megajoule firing -- more than three times the previous record set by the Navy in 2008.

Cool. :) I like how the small rounds are getting smarter and the large rounds are getting dumber and bother are getting better :)

Bailey

12-10-2010, 04:43 PM

Why bother putting it on a warship? really nothing worth hitting out there that you cant take of with a missle for much less the cost, now if you can shrink that down to fit a tank or better yet a hand held weapon then you'll be cooking with gas :D

djones520

12-10-2010, 04:59 PM

Why bother putting it on a warship? really nothing worth hitting out there that you cant take of with a missle for much less the cost, now if you can shrink that down to fit a tank or better yet a hand held weapon then you'll be cooking with gas :D

Thats just it... it won't cost more. Missile are expensive as hell. This is firing a lump of metal using electricity.

Furthermore, with using these weapons, they'll have to stock less explosives on the ships. Makes the ships must less likely to explode, and it's crew men much safer.

Not to mention, a missile is slower to reach it's target. They don't travel at Mach 10.

malloc

12-10-2010, 05:22 PM

Why bother putting it on a warship? really nothing worth hitting out there that you cant take of with a missle for much less the cost, now if you can shrink that down to fit a tank or better yet a hand held weapon then you'll be cooking with gas :D

To further what djones had to say: 100 miles away, in blue water ocean, is *way* over the horizon. That means, with the assistance of air or satellite based observation and signal, a naval vessel can target another vessel over the horizon, while never showing up on the target vessel's radar, because radar doesn't penetrate water too well. The problem with using a missile to strike from this position of stealth at great distance is that the missile has a radar profile, a heat signature, and a relatively large size. That means that as soon as the missile breaks the target's horizon, the target vessel could employ a countermeasure such as our Navy's PHALANX system, or anti-missile missile system similar to a sea based PATRIOT. However, a fast moving small chunk of steel is not going to be detected in time to employ countermeasures, and countermeasures aren't going to be effective against it because of it's small size and inert properties.

Zathras

12-10-2010, 08:38 PM

To further what djones had to say: 100 miles away, in blue water ocean, is *way* over the horizon. That means, with the assistance of air or satellite based observation and signal, a naval vessel can target another vessel over the horizon, while never showing up on the target vessel's radar, because radar doesn't penetrate water too well. The problem with using a missile to strike from this position of stealth at great distance is that the missile has a radar profile, a heat signature, and a relatively large size. That means that as soon as the missile breaks the target's horizon, the target vessel could employ a countermeasure such as our Navy's PHALANX system, or anti-missile missile system similar to a sea based PATRIOT. However, a fast moving small chunk of steel is not going to be detected in time to employ countermeasures, and countermeasures aren't going to be effective against it because of it's small size and inert properties.

And how else do you expect them to stop a Decepticon from wrecking a pyramid??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6qizxSFckc

SarasotaRepub

12-21-2010, 11:30 PM

What an eeeeeeeeeeeeevil weapons system!!! I love it! :D

patriot45

12-22-2010, 12:13 AM

What an eeeeeeeeeeeeevil weapons system!!! I love it! :D

:D Metal storm! Badass!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEu9LLQpOF8&p=C8B77977914F066E

megimoo

12-22-2010, 02:18 AM

Thats just it... it won't cost more. Missile are expensive as hell. This is firing a lump of metal using electricity.

Furthermore, with using these weapons, they'll have to stock less explosives on the ships. Makes the ships must less likely to explode, and it's crew men much safer.

Not to mention, a missile is slower to reach it's target. They don't travel at Mach 10.

These things are ballistic and unguided.They are affected by air density,pressure and temperature .When something is accelerated to mach 10 At the surface of the Earth (sea level), on an average day, the speed of sound is about 770 mph, so your shell would go 7700 mph .

At that speed some metals will melt due to air friction and the air piled up in front of the projectile would tend to push it off course.The larges navel rifle has a maximum range of about twenty miles so the forces pushing it off course are limited to time of flight.

The 16in guns of the Colorado class battleships when firing 2100-lb shells at 2600f/s at the maximum elevation of 30deg would achieve a "maximum ordinate" (highpoint of flight) of just over 19,000 feet! That means the ordinate is roughly 18% of the gun range. If we move things out to a theoretical 45deg elevation (which would have been possible for the North Carolina class battleships, but they never used this ammunition), the maximum ordinate is 35,699 feet while the range is 39,600 yards,(About twenty miles ) so the ordinate is now 30% of the range.

A projectile traveling at supersonic speeds for over one hundred miles at 45 degrees would just about enter space before it found it's target.

Starbuck

12-22-2010, 09:50 PM

These things are ballistic and unguided.They are affected by air density,pressure and temperature .When something is accelerated to mach 10 At the surface of the Earth (sea level), on an average day, the speed of sound is about 770 mph, so your shell would go 7700 mph .

At that speed some metals will melt due to air friction and the air piled up in front of the projectile would tend to push it off course.The larges navel rifle has a maximum range of about twenty miles so the forces pushing it off course are limited to time of flight.

The 16in guns of the Colorado class battleships when firing 2100-lb shells at 2600f/s at the maximum elevation of 30deg would achieve a "maximum ordinate" (highpoint of flight) of just over 19,000 feet! That means the ordinate is roughly 18% of the gun range. If we move things out to a theoretical 45deg elevation (which would have been possible for the North Carolina class battleships, but they never used this ammunition), the maximum ordinate is 35,699 feet while the range is 39,600 yards,(About twenty miles ) so the ordinate is now 30% of the range.

A projectile traveling at supersonic speeds for over one hundred miles at 45 degrees would just about enter space before it found it's target.
Woa!, Magimoo! Know some shit! I'm impressed. I've always been sort of a BB junkie, but I just like to stare. I've been aboard the Iowa, NJ, and Wisconsin while they were in mothballs in Philly, and the MO when I was in Bremerton. Oh, yeah, Alabama, too.
NJ fired right over the top of us in Vietnam. We were impressed. Just sort of patted our little 40mm on its little head hoping to make it feel better.
Salute!;)

megimoo

12-22-2010, 11:10 PM

Woa!, Magimoo! Know some shit! I'm impressed. I've always been sort of a BB junkie, but I just like to stare. I've been aboard the Iowa, NJ, and Wisconsin while they were in mothballs in Philly, and the MO when I was in Bremerton. Oh, yeah, Alabama, too.
NJ fired right over the top of us in Vietnam. We were impressed. Just sort of patted our little 40mm on its little head hoping to make it feel better.
Salute!;)Navy fire control school taught me naval ordnance and ballistics when I was a young kid.
From what you say about twin forty's you were on a destroyer I take it ?I was on a heavy cruiser in Westpac for four full tours.

Our main battery three gun eight inch fifty five caliber triple turrets .If we lost power to the mechanical computers in the turrets we had to be able to calculate the firing solution in our heads .For giggles we would hop into the eight in turrets for a gunnery drill .

There's not much room but if you scrunch down in the back you can watch each gun crew load the rounds and bags of powder.Each gun pit has a loaded who drops the breach plug and pulls down a spanned tray ,.The eight inch round comes up the hoist and lays into the tray .

the loader rams the round into the barrel and seats the rotating band into the Rifling .The ram withdraws and the powder bags roll into the spanner tray and the loaded rams them in behind the round and hydraulically closes the breach plug.

Each pit boss has 45/70 blank rounds between his fingers and pushes one into each barrels breach plug.Each pit boss shifts his selector into automatic when he is ready to fire and the barrels all elevate .The pit boss had best stand to one side when the selector is in automatic for when the turret fires a broadside each gun barrel recoils all the way back into the pit.The air pressure differential when the turrets fires will sure clean out your Paranasal sinuses and pop your ears .I had sky one and all of the directors as my duty station during G.Q ,IF the radars went down I had to hop up and fix them.